As Covington police continued Friday to round up 60 people wanted for dealing drugs in their city, authorities said they have noticed a trend – many of them are recent transplants from Cincinnati.

“Kentucky reduced the punishment for many drug crimes and the word is out,” Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders said.

As part of legislation in 2011 to reduce the prison population, lawmakers lessened the punishment for possessing less than 2 grams of heroin to one to five years in prison. It had been five to 10 years.

Sanders didn’t know how many of the 17 arrested so far had recently moved to Covington from Cincinnati, but he said it was a significant number. Authorities took notice when several of those arrested had permanent addresses in Covington but still had Ohio driver’s licenses.

State Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, agreed with Sanders.

“I was in the Legislature when we lowered those and it was the biggest mistake we have made,” said Schickel, a former U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Kentucky. “It created an incentive for drug dealers to come to Kentucky.”

State Rep. Joe Fischer, R-Fort Thomas, who’s on the House Judiciary Committee, said all the anecdotal evidence indicates a migration of drug dealers to Kentucky, particularly in border cities such as Covington.

He called for a statistical analysis to see where convicted drug dealers lived and whether they recently had moved to Kentucky. Fischer said legislators should consider the punishments for drug dealing in neighboring states before tinkering with drug laws in Kentucky.

Fischer said Kentucky legislators could then more efficiently address the problem.

Schickel and Fischer agree the penalties for drug dealing, particularly heroin, need to be addressed. A bill introduced by state Sen. Katie Stine, R-Southgate, to toughen penalties on heroin traffickers and increase money for heroin treatment is a move in the right direction, they said.